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Rollie Hawk writes "More than a month before the premiere of Revenge of the Sith, fans are already lining up. Outside Grauman's Chinese Theater, eleven diehard Star Wars fans (i.e. lifelong virgins) are waiting for tickets to go on sale. Unfortunately, it appears that the guys with girlfriends will have the last laugh as the Chinese Theater isn't even premiering the film."

I dunno. He's excactly the sort of nerd who other nerds look up to. A sort of "alpha nerd" if you will. The more crazy and over-the-top a guy is, the more the "nerd-hags" (yes, just as "chubby chaser" men exist, so too do women who fetishize nerds) will tend to flock to him.

I'm guessing he can get his share of wicca trim at a typical Ren Fest.

I dunno, a lot of "embarassing stuff" other people find funny, I don't because it's painful to watch. Almost like I'm doing it. Same with rage. I watch something were someone is screaming and my body gets all worked up like I was mad, but I'm not. I watch someone holding their breath underwater and my breathing just tapers off. Maybe I'm the weird one:)

Actually, there was a study (which I saw a bit about on PBS... "Scientific American Frontiers" I think... anyway, the one with Alan Alda hosting it) which showed that when you watch somebody experience something, your brain reacts in almost exactly the same way as if you experienced it yourself.

This function of the way our brains are wired is what allows us to feel empathy.

The corollary to this phenomenon could also be the reason why voyeurs often become crossdressers.

That reminds me- Remember the wizard that shows up in the clip of Triumph making fun of the Star Wars geeks? I was on the subway coming back from Coney Island one day last year (after the Mermaid Parade) and that guy was on the car with me

All I could do was chuckle to myself while he read proclimations from scrolls.

What kills me about the "nerds" waiting in line for Star Wars prequels is they are such posers.

When Empire came out, people waited in line days in advance because it was the only sure way to get in on opening night.

Today, you can buy your tickets on-line in advance and show up just as the previews are starting. There is no reason to camp out for seats other than pretending to be as "hard core" of a fan as those who slept out for the original movies in '77, '80 and '83.

Hey, you in the Jedi robes! Here's a clue: Real nerds will have already seen the illegal torrent file of the movie before you even get in the theater anyway. There's no geek-cred to be won simply by being the "first" to see the new movie, and all of the prequels are lame anyway. Go home and take a shower.

So let me get this straight -- if you camp out because you must, you're a "real" nerd, and if you have time to do it out of a sense of nostalgia you're... what, cool? I can't think of anything nerdier than those dudes in the Triumph video. Modern-day Star Wars sidewalk campers are the benchmark standard for nerds everywhere.

> There is no reason to camp out for seats other than pretending to be as "hard> core"

Except, you know, because they want to socialize with Star Wars fans and play with lightsabers, and they think that's cool, despite the fact that it's not cool to the rest of us.

News flash: "geek cred" is a worthless currency, and has been ever since the dot-com bubble burst. It's now back to just being an oxymoron. You've reached a crossroads: If there's a group deriving value and status from somthing that you deem worthless, and then you proceed to deride them for not sharing your sense of what's worth doing -- then congratulations, you're no longer a nerd. You're a cool person.

> Go home and take a shower.

If I stay home and torrent the prequels I already know I'm supposed to hate, why bother showering?

According to the article, these fans are more interested in standing in line than seeing the movie itself:

"The telling thing is -- for me, at least -- if the film is not playing at the Chinese... I have zero desire to see it at all," a fan who calls himself Obi Geewhyen posted on the message board at Liningup.net. "I'm in it for the lineup only and don't give a darn about the conclusion of this lackluster, so-called 'Star Wars' series."

What is it with americans and "oh-bee-gee-why-en"? Why cant you just say gynacologist like the rest of the world? Is it a dirty word in the states or something? It took me years to figure out wtf that word meant.

You know, I thought the preview looked pretty good too. But I don't trust George Lucas. You don't know the power of his urge to make shitty movies! Hayden Christenson will be a whiny bitch, there's going to be some sort of "American Idol" in-joke, and you're going to be so surprised, and you're going to bring your abused, broken heart here, blubbering your sorrow all over another thousand-comment thread, and you're going to receive the biggest "I told you so" ever fucking constructed.

I like science fiction but I have never dressed like a character or joined any fan club on the subject.

Still, I don't understand why people find it so strange that a small amount of hardcore fans dress each two years like their favorite hero but then, never make fun of the thousands of stupid jocks that paint their faces and go dressed in a clown looking way to their favorite football game every Sunday.

Geeks are social. Dorks are not social but good people. Nerds are not social and evil.

Nerds are the Slashdotters who put on their D&D dungeon master rode to feel empowered as they post on Slashdot and call everyone else in the world losers but themselves. I like geeks and dorks, I can't stand nerds.

A Geek is an engineer, or, barring that, one who obsessed with obtaining skill in something that really has no real world relevance, but sucks up time from interesting problems as a means of illusionary social superiority. These skills are mainly trivial, done by countless others, and are done in a way that collaboration is almost completely shunned. Examples are D&D, pseudo-religious flame wars (kind of like this), system administration, obtaining an MCSE,

Pundits and observers dispute the relationship of the terms "nerd" and "geek" to one another. Some view the geek as a less technically skilled nerd. Some factions maintain that "nerds" have both technical skills and social competence, whereas "geeks" display technical skills while socially incompetent; others hold an exactly reversed view, with "geek" serving as the socially competent counterpart of the socially incompetent "nerd", and call themselves "geeks" with pride (compare Geekcorps, an organization that sends people with technical skills to Third World countries to assist in computer infrastructure development).

Some regional differences may exist in the use of the words "nerd" and "geek". Some claim that on the North American west coast the population prefers the term "geek" to "nerd", while the North American east coast prefers the word "nerd" to "geek" (see Ellen Spertus's page on The Sexiest Geek Alive (http://www.mills.edu/ACAD_INFO/MCS/SPERTUS/Geek/) [mills.edu]). Others on the east coast dispute this, claiming that they have always found "nerd" used disparagingly and "geek" used in a positive light. In Britain, this latter view tends to apply -- "nerd" has more offensive connotations than "geek", which speakers of British English often use affectionately. Compare anorak.

Nerd appeared earlier and at a time when being good at school was not seen as "cool". Therefore nerd is a derogatory word (although some people now consider it a compliment), while geek appeared later and has thus avoided many of the negative conotations. Geek is a milder version and is also applied to to people who are socially insignificant, while nerd is used more with people who are socially inept.

Completely off-topic (and pedantic) here, but "Immaculate conception" does not refer to a conception that takes place without sex, and is only related to the doctrine of Virgin Birth vaguely.

The conception of Jesus was not the "immaculate conception"; the conception of Mary was; even though she was conceived through normal means, the Catholic Church decided that she'd been given a singular gift of Grace, making her the only person ever born without the stain of Original Sin, to explain how she could possibly be a suitable vessel for Jesus before he died to forgive that sin.

"Immaculate conception" does not refer to a conception that takes place without sex, and is only related to the doctrine of Virgin Birth vaguely.

It's also a typo. In the original Hebrew, the word used meant "without child" or "young girl". Basically, "not a mother", nothing to do with "not had sex", or "a regular on slashdot". So, one of the cornerstones of Christianity is a translation error.

Those "translation errors" are all deliberate. ALL OF THEM. We're talking about some of the most learned people of their age making these translations, and they're not doing it in a void. They knew exactly what kind of spin they wanted to put on the bible and they disguised their tampering as translation. Witness all the more recent edits to the bible. If that's the word of God, all you people are going to hell for following a deliberately manipulated version of the Word.

We're talking about some of the most learned people of their age making these translations, and they're not doing it in a void. They knew exactly what kind of spin they wanted to put on the bible and they disguised their tampering as translation.

Being modded as troll, but he's right. If you disagree, trace the the origins of the revision of the bible and you will see. Prior to the translation from Latin (King James version), only the elite could read the scriptures. When they translated them, they were the sole purveuors of religious thought in the UK. They were also men, bound by the weaknesses of men. They left out entire sections that they disagreed with, e.g. the book of Mary. Men at that didn't believe women had a place other than in the kitchen.

Each translation was an attempt to make a bible for the local population, written with the current environment in mind. If the exact same people were to sit down and do a translation today, it would be vastly different. It scares me that most religious people aren't open to the fact there are several hundred different versions of the bible. The one their church uses is the correct one, and that's the end of the discussion as far as they are concerned.

Men at that didn't believe women had a place other than in the kitchen.

Simply not true...and if you had actually read the Bible (in particularly, the Gospels) you would have seen that this was not true.

From the Gospel of Luke:

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." "

I mean, really, if all that the men were about were making sure that women stayed in the kitchen, wouldn't they have had a little bit more creativity here? Jesus would have told Martha that she was absolutely right and that Mary should get her lazy butt into the kitchen to help with preparing the food.

She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." "

I've heard this argument before... it's interesting, but it's not what's been shown to be true. I'll need to reach for some sources here...

There are 5,000+ unique manuscripts of the new testament, dated to between 50 to 225 years after the NT was written. So no, it wasn't spread by word of mouth for 1,000 years and got corrupted that way. According to this source and numerous studies, based on just the new testament, 5,000 different (greek!) manuscripts corroborate to an accurancy of 99.5%. (Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ (Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), p. 83-85). Feel free to take an issue with that.

They were also men, bound by the weaknesses of men.

Agreed, of course. Men aren't perfect. But the book of Mary wasn't even written by Mary, nor could it have been proven to be true. All of the books in the modern bible have been corroborated -- hundreds of separate manuscripts... not decided by committee. See The Da Vinci Deception by Erwin W. Lutzer.

Each translation was an attempt to make a bible for the local population, written with the current environment in mind. If the exact same people were to sit down and do a translation today, it would be vastly different.

It would only be different in the sense that the words they would come out with from the original Greek translations would be different. There are a few dozen different versions of the Bible out right now. Some a sixth grader could read. Some I can't read aloud. Some have had the modern language applied to them. When you have greek words that can turn in ways more subtle than the modern English language (you know, like how eros, agape, and philia all mean "love", but agape is far more encompassing), that's going to happen.

It scares me that most religious people aren't open to the fact there are several hundred different versions of the bible. The one their church uses is the correct one, and that's the end of the discussion as far as they are concerned.

I have a preferred version, but I have a couple of others as well. Yes, the Wisconsin Synod of the Lutheran Church uses solely the King James Bible, as far as I know. There's no biblical precedent for that, nor do I recommend it, and it is dangerously narrow-minded.

But there is also a difference between using just one Bible and going to another source (the Book of Thomas, the Book of Mary, the Apocrypha) that may not be as "proven" (through the manuscripts of old) as the 62 books that are there.

Keep in mind there is nothing banning you from reading any of those books. There may even be parts that are helpful to you in the study of 1st century Judaism! They just aren't counted as "the inspired Word of God", given that some of the parables related in those books are clearly unbelievable (as opposed to the corroborated (I cannot emphasize that enough) miracles in the Gospels).

I'm very interested in bible translation issues. And since this is a new testament concept, how does hebrew play into this? And was the error caused when going from aramaic to greek or greek to english?

Then you'll like this one: go find some 16th century paintings of Moses coming down the mountain with the tablets with the commandments on them. Then look at his head. Then stare at the little horns on his head!

What happenend was a little translation error: the text translated from said something along the lines of '...and Moses came down the mountain with fury...' because he saw that his people where worshipping golden idols. But in hebrew, the word fury [or 'scorn'...I don't remember the exact word] and

Pope Goestheveezl was the shortest reigning pope in the history of the Church, reigning for two hours and six minutes on 1 April 1866. The white smoke had hardly faded into the blue of the Vatican skies before it dawned on the assembled multitudes in St. Peter's Square that his name had hilarious possibilities.

The tradition of popes taking names from predecessors dates to an early time in the Church when a certain man named Mercury became Pope. As he thought it inappropriate to have the head of the Christian Church named after a pagan deity he took the name of a predecessor. The tradition stuck.

"The telling thing is -- for me, at least -- if the film is not playing at the Chinese... I have zero desire to see it at all," a fan who calls himself Obi Geewhyen posted on the message board at Liningup.net. "I'm in it for the lineup only and don't give a darn about the conclusion of this lackluster, so-called 'Star Wars' series."

Not only does he have a bit of a geeky tag, the reason he's waiting isn't to see the films but, well, to wait.

The lines at the Chinese for the original film have ascended to the status of pop culture legend.

People who wait in line outside the Chinese for the (shitty) prequels are doing so for the exact same reason kids went to "Woodstock 2" in spite of the fact that nearly all of the bands at the show sucked. They want to feel somehow connected to the phenomenon.

If they don't have internet access, and no one tells them... how long will they sit out there? And then what type of a fit will they throw when they go to the correct theatre and there's already a line.

I saw Episodes 1/2 on opening day and waited in line about 6 minutes combined. So it's not like they NEED to camp out to get tickets. Which come to think of it makes the whole idea of them standing in line for tickets anywhere, let alone a theatre that isn't even showing the movie... downright sad.

What I'm looking forward to more than the movie is the comedy bit where Triumph the Insult Comic Dog shows up and tells the line camping nerds how nice they are... FOR HIM TO POOP ON!

They were already waiting in line for the sequel to two rather lackluster movies. I'd almost say that that standing in line at the wrong theater pales by comparison to standing in line for the wrong movie.

It was pretty funny. Basically the guy was just telling me that they're not losers and that they have an organization for this kind of thing. They have a system of signing in and signing out and the amount of hours they accumulate indicates their position in line.

I still think they're a bit freaky, but whatever you find fun, you gotta do.

... in a way. I just played the PS2 game Star Wars: Lego, which lets you play a very accurate game based on episodes 1-3. Episodes 1 & 2 were very accurate, so I'm assuming that Episode 3 was accurate, too. If that was the case, then Obi-Wan follows Annakin to some volcanic planet, where they have a fight, and Annakin ends up losing and falling into lava. Obi-Wan thinks that he's dead. The Emperor finds him, and restores him as Darth Vader. Darth Vader gets pissed as soon as he wakes up with his new body, and smashes all of the machines. There was quite a bit more, too. All in this game that was released some time back. I thought it was one hell of a slip on somebody's part.

Are you sure the Chinese theatre wasn't showing Space Balls or something??? I mean, really, this is something QUITE obvious. You'd think these people would at least make sure they're at the right theatre!

I mean, really, this is something QUITE obvious. You'd think these people would at least make sure they're at the right theatre!

Please RTFA.

The Chinesse theatre has shown all of the previous star wars movies. When the last movie came out there were rumors it wouldn't be playing at the Chinese theatre, but it ended up premeiring there despite those rumors.

AFAIK, the Chinese theatre is a single screen theatre a few blocks away from a huge super-mega-multi-omni-ultraplex. Said plex is trying to work a deal

Amen. Its pretty tragic when people rail against some harmeless kids just because they love star wars. Would these kids be 'cooler' if they were selling cocaine or heroin on the same street instead?People have a fucked up idea of who to slag off.

When I saw this headline, it really made me wish there was some way I could mod the article itself down.

This is really a sad commentary on the position of slashdot readers in the social order, and I'll illustrate why with a anecdote from middle school: At recess I often used to watch the field behind the soccer goals, because it's where the social outcasts would go to pick on each other. Day after day they would battle to determine the pecking order of the bottom 5th percentile. Fights like those didn't go on in the upper levels, where looks, money, and prestige determined social rank. It was fascinating, and tragic. In the end, the winners gained nothing, and the stuggle only served to make their lives that much more miserable.

Now for those that didn't understand the moral, here it is; If you pick on the weakest people you can find, it is because you are yourself weak. If you are actually important or noteworthy in some way, you wouldn't have to point out failings in others to try and aggrandize yourself. Hugh Hefner doesn't need to scoff at other's sexual exploits, because he is legendary in that regard. If you do, you are obviously not.

So for everyone out there who felt the need to say, "har dee har, at least I'm not those guys", congratulations, but recess is over. So point your eyes back down at the floor and don't bump into anyone in the hall, because to everyone else, you're still at the bottom.

This will be the first SW Movie since they started the re-releases I won't be in line for. Though that's more due to work than a lack of desire to be out there camped in front of the theater. Though my stays (2 days 1 night) were never as long as these guys out in CA, they were long enough to get the most enjoyment out of the experience.

The line is more fun than the movie, by far. Everyone out there is there because they're dorks, nerds, geeks. They enjoy Star Wars, and a film premier is likely one of the few times they get to gather with other fans and geek out about their hobby. It's always a good time with people sitting around playing cards, eating pizza, drinking soda, playing board games (video games one year when the theater owner rolled out a TV on a cart for us to use) etc. Essentially the line ends up being a day or two long party.

So many here love to mock the line goers, but how many of those people have been to a Linux, gaming or hacker convention? How many have gone to some sort of industry conference? It's the same thing. Lots of geeks gathering in one place to talk about the stuff they enjoy.

The line is more fun than the movies ever are. By the time the opening crawl starts on the screen, I've been awake for 2-3 days and soon I'm nodding off. I don't care though cause I know I'm not missing anything, I already experienced the most fun part.

While I won't be in line this year, I will be thinking of my friends back home who will be.

The fans in line have heard your pleas and have answered with the following rfom liningup.net [liningup.net]:

Liningup.net is staying in the spot where we have great relationships with the theatre, the local businesses, and the Hollywood Division of the LAPD. We are lining up at the theatre where the first Star Wars premiered in 1977, where all of the prequels have played, where George Lucas, R2D2, Harrison Ford, and Darth Vader have their footprints in the world-famous "Forecourt of the Stars".

We are raising money for an amazing charity, Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, that works to brighten the lives of seriously ill children. We've only been in line for 3 days and we have already topped more than $6200 in donations, with hopefully tens of thousansds more to be raised.

Twice before we've lined up at Grauman's Chinese Theatre without confirmation that the films would play there. Twice before, we've been told it was going to play somewhere else. Hopefully, our luck holds out for a third time. If not, we'll still have an incredibly fun time relaxing with other Star Wars fans and raising both funds and awareness for the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation.

-You spend 6-8 week in line for movie tickets to Star Wars and no one at work really misses you.-While you're in line, your mom is just glad to have your ass out of the house so she can fumigate your room.-In your zeal to be "first" (you're probably the same geeks that post "first post" trolls on/.), you overlook the possibility that this theatre may not premiere your beloved movie.-Even slashdotters make fun of you.

I saw Episode IV (the first one, at the time just called Star Wars) on its premier at the Chinese Theater (then called Mann's before the name went back to Graumann's). We didn't camp out but we did spend a couple hours in line.

Science fiction wasn't a big deal in those days. Probably the biggest sci fi film previously was 2001 from almost 10 years earlier. The last "line around the block" movie was Love Story. I was hoping it wouldn't be too crowded, but the weekend before it opened Time magazine had a big spread on the movie, with pictures that made it look fantastic. So we did have to wait pretty long.

But we got good seats, and as the lights went down I heard a couple of guys talking in the row behind us. Apparently they were in the industry and had already seen the movie in pre-release.

I can relate to what the industry folks were talking about. As a fellow old timer, I saw Star Wars for the first time (first 10 times, actually) in the theatre in 1977 and was absolutely blown away by the special effects. When the Star Destroyer flew overhead in the opening scene, the entire audience gasped in astonishment, and everyone was wondering just how BIG that thing was. First (and only) wait in line for the premier was for Return of the Jedi - My friends and I got there at 8:00 AM the day of f

Since moving to LA I've enjoyed many films at the Chinese Theater. In my opinion, it's still the best screen and auditorium in town. It seems like at the Chinese you're more likely to have a good crowd that's really into the film and having a good time. (The room holds close to 1500 people and the energy levels can be contagious... I always get a smile on my face when people start cheering the THX trailer before the film even starts...)

The one downside is, sometimes they book utter crap onto their main screen. A showing at the Chinese should be about spectacle. It's not where you want to see a small, intimate romantic comedy. It's where you go when you want to see things get blown up and have the speakers blast you out of your seat. As much as the Arclight tries, it really doesn't have the same impact as the Chinese, IMHO.

If Paramount is indeed a co-owner of Mann's, as the article mentions, that might explain some of their poor booking choices. No, I'm not in line, but I kind of agree with the guy interviewed. If it's not going to show at the Chinese, why bother seeing it on the big screen at all? Any other theater would pale in comparison and not be as enjoyable a movie-going experience.